While Dooley is doing his best to look like a royal jerk, these transfer situations aren’t always cut and dried. Football programs invest thousands and thousands of dollars into recruiting and need some sort of sticking point to stem the flow of whimsical 19 year olds.

This also isn’t the first transfer related to family members being sick.

My only beef with this process is that the player wants to be eligible immediately. If you’re moving back home to be near a sick relative being a full-time college student while playing big-time athletics doesn’t really seem to be the best plan for spending time with a sick loved one.

Because this situation does come about fairly regularly, and because it’s hard to say no to someone wanting to be closer to a sick relative, adjust the transfer requirements. Here are a few recommendations:

1) Put the “burden” on the athlete to prove to the NCAA that a family emergency is serious enough to warrant a transfer closer to home.

2) The current head coach wouldn’t have to sign-off on the transfer request, but he would be allowed an additional scholarship to replace the released player.

3) The transferring player would not be allowed to play (and possibly, practice) with the new team for one year (or complete season).

4) The new team would lose one scholarship in the next class for each transfer received.

I also think it would be appropriate to limit transfers within conferences.